C. Finance

Finance has primary responsibility to support the Performance Based Organization by serving as the financial advisor to the Chief Operating Officer. Finance, in partnership with the Department of Education’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), will develop and implement sound, value-added financial management policies, procedures, systems and program controls which will enable the organization to strengthen internal controls and provide Congress and other constituents both summary and detailed accounting on Federal Student Aid (FSA) grant, loan and operational activities. To accomplish this mission, the office of Finance is composed of three principle components:

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT GROUP

The Financial Management Group (FMG) is responsible for supporting general ledger management, funds management, payment management, receipt management, and reporting. To accomplish this mission, the Financial Management Group has two Divisions. They are:

Financial Reporting Division

Financial Reporting Division (FRD) provides financial information in a timely and effective manner to support FSA’s fiduciary role. To accomplish this mission, FRD has two branches. They are:

Financial Reporting and Analysis Branch

Prepares cross-channel internal reports.

Prepares recurring cost statements.

Analyzes reports on financial results.

Prepares flux and account analysis.

Prepares, in partnership with OCFO, all FSA financial statements, including Office of Management and Budget (OMB) form and content reports and footnotes, Schedule 9s, and other ad hoc statistical reports and position papers.

Formulates and implements, in collaboration with the OCFO, financial management policies and procedures establishing or enhancing program administrative efforts of FSA, with particular emphasis on improved timeliness and reliability of data.

BUDGET GROUP

The Budget Group is responsible for managing the preparation of budget information during the budget formulation, justification and execution processes in collaboration with the Department of Education’s Budget Service. The Budget Group also provides support to FSA areas in managing FSA’s administrative funds and Title IV Program budgetary resources. To accomplish this mission, the Budget Group has three Divisions, they are:

Budget Support Division

Develops FSA budget guidelines and standards including coordinating, packaging, and submission of operational budgets for all FSA areas as part of annual budget cycle.

Provides management and certification of all purchase card payments and analysis of activities.

Provides program administration of FSA’s travel card program and analysis of card activities.

Provides FSA procurement function for all purchases between $2,500 and $25,000.

Provides administration of the FSA telephone credit card program.

Processes reimbursements for all FSA employees' out of pocket expenses.

Provides management of FSA’s interagency agreement procurements.

Maintains and assures the validity of the FSA asset inventory system.

Asset Management Division

The Asset Management Division (AMD) is responsible for supporting the management and performance of the FSA guaranteed and Direct Loan portfolios. To accomplish this mission, the Asset Management Group:

Oversees the financial transactions of loan portfolio strategies.

Coordinates implementation of loan portfolio strategies.

Performs financial analysis on loan programs as well as for selected ad hoc management issues.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS GROUP

The Financial Management Systems Group (FMSG) is responsible for setting the framework in which all financial system functions operate, maintaining the system and ensuring its successful operation. Partners with Department of Education Financial Management Systems (ED OCFO) to ensure that both systems are synchronized with the same edits and general configurations are effective and comply with requirements. The FMS Group maintains and operates the flow of all financial data between the Program systems and the FMS. To accomplish this mission the FMS Group performs the following functions:

System support to FMS internal (FSA CFO Accounting Division, OCFO, and Budget Services) and external (Guarantee Agencies, Lenders, Servicers, and Schools) users. Assisting with the identification of additional set-up activities required for new accounting and descriptive flexfield values.

Updating cross validation rules; maintaining summary templates.

Opening and closing of accounting periods (GL/AP/AR).

Custom FMS online reports and Discoverer for system users.

Monitoring of Automatic and Manual postings and resolving errors as required.

Help Desk Operations - The FMS Functional and Technical Help Desk serves as the single point-of-entry for Department and FSA personnel, Schools, Guarantee Agencies, and other external FMS users. Help Desk personnel log the inquiry, perform triage, and notify the appropriate Help Desk entity (Virtual Data Center (VDC), Application Maintenance, System Support, or EDNet Help Desk). Respond to technical application issues.